Oblivious to the irony?
No longer a double down, this is a triple-down. The
Pueblo Chieftain in Colorado has waged a campaign against a Democrat in the state Senate, Angela Giron, and the paper's general manager have been exposed making threats against Giron. In a clear conflict of interest, the paper's manager and publisher have participated in the recall and contributed to it, all while they use the newspaper to blame Giron for the new, stronger gun laws passed in Colorado.
So after being exposed with these ethical...challenges, what do they do? Prop up a thin ethics charge against Giron.
Media Matters reports on the charge being made:
According the top local news story in the August 3 edition of the Chieftain, "An Avondale man sent an ethics complaint in an email to the Colorado Secretary of State's office Friday" alleging that Giron "is using her state-provided email address and phone number on her campaign website." The complainant reportedly does not live in Giron's district, but contacted the Secretary of State because "he is not a fan of her politics, especially her votes on the state's gun control laws." The story also quoted Becky Mizel, chairwoman of the Pueblo County Republican Party, who falsely claimed that "Angela Giron has chosen to use state resources and taxpayer money for her own political gain," and added that she was "disgusted" by Giron's actions.
So, that's ethics for you among gun enthusiasts. If someone promotes gun safety and you don't like that, find something that seems worth complaining about and Republicans (and their servants in the media) will run with it, no questions asked.
As Media Matters and others have already found, however, most of Colorado's General Assembly, Democrats and Republicans alike, list a "state-provided" phone number, email or mailing address on their campaign websites. Media Matters also interviewed Luis Toro, director of Colorado Ethics Watch, about the charge.
Toro told Media Matters that the allegations in the Chieftain article are not properly described as an ethics complaint, but would instead be correctly termed a campaign finance complaint as the complaint concerns Giron's conduct as a candidate, not as a legislator. He added, "The paper would do well to understand the difference between an ethics complaint and a campaign finance complaint" and that it "would be helpful for them to understand the underlying law" so that its readers could be informed as well.
Asked about the permissibility of using state contact information on a campaign website, Toro explained that "the reason everybody does it is because it's legal," and -- noting that no money is involved in the allegation against Giron -- added that "what's illegal is using state funds to contribute to a campaign."
So, the
Chieftain demonstrates its failure to understand ethics and the law. Well, when it comes to ethics they've already shown their quality. As was mentioned
on Daily Kos last week, this comes
after the newspaper was
used to try to bully Angela Giron into dropping her support for new gun laws in Colorado. And when that threat failed to sway her, they carried out the threat and put Giron on the front page for a week.
In response to Stafford's actions, the paper's assistant publisher and vice president, Jane Rawlings, wrote that Stafford used his affiliation in the email "as a way of identification, as he still is fairly new to the area." Although Rawlings said that after "a careful review of The Chieftain's coverage" she found the paper provided balanced coverage, Morse said Stafford essentially "threatened" Giron with critical coverage and that Giron "was in the paper and on the front page for a week straight, including within pictures that weren't very flattering, almost deliberately." Morse's account has been corroborated by local television station, KDVR-TV.
That's John Morse, Democratic state Senate President in Colorado, the target of the
other recall there, explaining how they used the newspaper to campaign against Giron. And it just so happens that the recall drive against her was successful while two others failed, how about that?
Also reported last week, general manager Ray Stafford (who issued the threats) and assistant publisher Jane Rawlings (who claimed such fair and balanced coverage) and the paper's production director all signed recall petitions against Giron. And Rawlings' husband contributed money as well!
Such fine examples of journalistic ethics, now featuring -- of course -- ethics complaints against Giron in their newspaper.
There is a place for political activity in newspapers; they don't call it the editorial page for nothing. Unfortunately, at the Pueblo Chieftain the entire rag is fair game for political manipulation. And these conservatives campaigning against Democrats have no qualms about bringing up ethics charges -- even as their own ethics are shown to be sorely lacking.
On the other hand, I see that the Daily Kos - Act Blue campaign to raise money for Democrats John Morse and Angela Giron has broken $100K. I'd put up one of those thermometers if I knew how, but the next time the front pagers report on this, they'll have to adjust the goal upward some more.
Thanks to the NRA and Republicans, there may be a fight on in Colorado over stronger gun laws, but it's good to see that Democrats are fighting back.